Court Documents Show Accused Serial Killer Claimed He Was Abused by Women

Article excerpt

WINNIPEG - A man accused of killing three women has admitted to harbouring years of pent-up anger over neglect and abuse he says he experienced at the hands of several important women in his life.

Court documents obtained by the Winnipeg Free Press show Shawn Lamb, 52, was struggling to deal in recent years with being removed from his now-deceased biological mother's care at the age of two as part of the "60's scoop," taken from his First Nation community and raised by a white family in Ontario.

Lamb claims his foster mother, who is no longer alive, sexually and physically abused him while also introducing him to alcohol when he was just nine. He makes similar claims against his estranged stepsister, saying she would play "doctor" with him as a young child and molest him.

"Why did they stomp out the last tiny vestiges of self worth from this child? What wrong had he committed? Why was he kicked and beaten, raped and abused in both mind and body? Why?" Lamb states in an excerpt of a self-help book he was writing.

The handwritten document was tendered as an exhibit during a sentencing hearing two years ago to help the judge gain insight into Lamb's troubled past, which includes 99 criminal convictions between 1976 and 2010.

Police have disclosed no motive for the three homicides in Winnipeg that Lamb is accused of committing.

He is charged with second-degree murder in the deaths of Tanya Nepinak on Sept. 13, 2011, Carolyn Sinclair on Dec. 18, 2011 and Lorna Blacksmith on Jan. 12.

Sinclair and Blacksmith's bodies have been found, but Nepinak's remains have not been located. Investigators are scouring unsolved and missing persons cases around the country to determine if Lamb could be linked to any other slayings.

Lamb's case has been adjourned to July 6. He hasn't made a bail application and is being held at the Winnipeg Remand Centre.

Lamb previously told court he was diagnosed in 2001 as bipolar and took solace in expressing his deepest, darkest feelings through the written word. He was working with the John Howard Society in 2010 to help express his views and said he wanted to publish the book to help others avoid the same mistakes he'd made. …